The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition seeking postponement of Union budget date due to upcoming elections in five states. Dismissing the petition, a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said that the budget can be presented as scheduled as there was nothing to support that the presentation of Union Budget would influence voters' mind in state elections. The bench, also comprising Justices N V Ramana and D Y Chandrachud, did not grant opportunity to lawyer M L Sharma, who had filed the PIL in the personal capacity, to come back to it if the Centre violated the model code of conduct in its budget, to be presented on February one. It was not impressed with the arguments that the Centre may announce sops for the voters of the states going for polls in the budget, saying "Your argument is absurd. This way you will say the party in power at Centre should not contest state polls". The bench did not agree with the submission that in the past, Centre had postponed presentation of the budget due to assembly polls.